Oh wait what this exists?

So It's Kinda Like...

Sahasrara is the closest comparison. It costs you 1 at the benefit of being twice as good as MacroDrive. Generally, cards with higher power level are more popular if they don't cost too much. In this case, Rara is stronger and has the same install cost. Therefore, you'd only choose MacroDrive if:

• You're short on Influence in a non-shaper deck
• You're short on with your whole rig
• You want this in addition to Rara (shoot dang, what are you installing so much?)

Good Combos

3 uses breaks even. You'd have to use this about 6 times to make it better than Easy Mark. With that in mind, there's a few combos this fits with nicely:

• Khan+Raptors: The powerful derez abilities on Golden and Peregrine are held back by the expensive install costs for those breakers. Khan's 12 influence means you might not have enough for a Rara or two, so MacroDrive fits the bill nicely. Ice Analyzer could be suitable in this build as well, but I think MacroDrive will be better for consistency.
• "Gamble for Days": This is the Aesop's+Cache+Tech Writer build usually found in Hayley. You make all of your install/reinstalls cheaper for each MacroDrive you have. It's not essential, but it does make each click yield 1 more.
• Chameleon without London Library: You could slot this instead of Library to make your Chameleon installs cheaper.
• Brahman: the need to slot "Brahman food" is tough because you generally only want programs that are free to install. MacroDrive can open up your options a bit, although you usually have enough free for Rara.

Bad Combos

There's also a few decks I wouldn't include MacroDrive in, despite possible synergy:

• Noise: use Cyberfeeder instead.
• Geist: you have enough money from Tech Traders that costs from Spike/Crowbar don't matter.

Final Thoughts

MacroDrive, like many recurring credit cards, is slightly overcosted, which makes it hard to use. It definitely requires a very specific build to make it good enough. The only reason Prepaid VoicePAD was considered strong was because it was combined with Kate's discount to only cost 1, AND it allowed you to play econ cards for cheap. This is similar, where outside of Kate it will be tricky to make this viable.

Compromised Employee is so close to being a great card. I'll say it's a fine card, but if I include it in a deck I often feel like it's not pulling enough weight for a card to be worth the slot. Why is that?

Primarily, you gain value from this card based on the corp's deck construction. Because that's out of your control, that means CE is inconsistent. Inconsistent cards lose slots to consistent cards.

The Good

Gaining 1 everytime an ice is rezzed feels so good, you know? It's like, "Wanna defend your stuff? Haha, I gain money, eat that!" Plus, being rewarded for derezzing effects like Golden, Emergency Shutdown and Crescentus is great synergy. Ankusa also fits this strategy, and CE's 1 influence makes it an easy import into decks.

It's a connection resource, so you can Hostage for it, Call in Favors from it, and get it from your Supplier.

The Bad

At the time of writing, we're in a tag-heavy meta after the release of Hard-Hitting News. SYNC and CTM are prevalent, as are their trifecta of tagging tracers: Data Raven, Gutenberg, and Turnpike. Even so, I view the fact that the is not a is an unnecessary downside. Were traces really so weak that they needed to nerf a link card? Laaaame.

I think a situational econ card that takes like 4 uses of the card to start making it worth it (vs using the install click to gain a cred) is just a little weak. In faction, you'd almost rather have Easy Mark and just get the first 5 uses up front. Out of faction, I'd almost certainly use Deuces Wild for its flexibility at 1 influence.

Also, with the additions of Rumor Mill and Political Operative, glacier is particularly dead in its grave, so cards like CE that would shine against high-ice decks are weak at the moment. Conversely, Asset-heavy corps are doing well, so cards like Security Testing are doing much better over cards like this.

The Verdict

If I were to change this card now, I would make the a instead, and make it 1 to install. The faster return on investment helps make it worth the slot, The All-Seeing I makes Resources weaker, and it can falter based on the corp's deck construction. As it is, CE will likely stay in your binder until its rotation, barring the release of strong recurring derez effects.

Marker was made in response to the " ice is porous" complaint. In theory, it's a cheaper, in-faction Quandary that doesn't die to Parasite. Seems decent at first.

If the runner has the breaker for the ice after Marker, and they're paying 1 to break 1, you've paid the install cost of Marker to increase the cost to get through the server by 1. That's roughly equal, but probably not worth a deck slot.

If Marker is in front of a...

• Barrier, it is redundant. The barrier already ends the run, so it doesn't really change anything. If the runner has a fracter, they can get through, and if they don't, they can't.
• Code Gate, and the runner doesn't have a decoder, it might help stop the runner from proceeding. It is best if the code gate stings upon face checking it, although that list is short (Crick, Upayoga, maybe Aiki or Harvester...). Even if the runner jacks out after encountering Marker, it has done its job.
• Sentry, and the runner doesn't have a decoder or a killer, you have done a great thing. Also, why didn't they jack out? Also, why were they running against without a sentry breaker? Maybe you just used Midori to swap out a boring Vanilla with an unrezzed Komainu. Oh! Or maybe they let the Marker sub fire, and then they approach a Cobra, and then you rez your Marcus Batty and win the psi game and trash their killer and then you get to fire the Cobra so you trash another program which is probably Corroder and then deal two net damage and then the ETR keeps them out and you can score!! Blammo!!!!

Yeah, so uses are limited. I seriously think the Batty thing is probably the best idea, and that's a 3-card combo with positional ice and a psi game, so...good luck with that.

P.S. I got it, super taxing mega-server of Sensei, Marker, Marker, Marker, Quandary. Total cost of 8. Zu breaks for 11 5+0+4+0+2. Gordian breaks for 8 4+0+2+0+2.

P.P.S. Yog breaks for free ah balls don't play marker

Rather than compare this to Algo Trading and discuss whether this is better or worse than a very bad runner card, I'd like to analyze C.I. Fund by itself.

A little bit of math tells us that you'll need to have CIF on the table for several turns before it changes from "expensive click-bait" to "econ card". Thankfully it's free to rez, and you can start investing in it the turn you rez it.

CIF's one saving grace is that you can take the money if a runner runs on it. After 1 or 2 turns investing, you can pay 2 to gain back your 3, so you've lost 2 and the to install. After 3 turns, you've only lost the . And after 4 turns, you will still profit from this, even if the runner runs it.

After 5 turns, it becomes the world's slowest Hedge Fund. I'm not convinced the 5 turns of protecting this thing make it worth the "Royalties with upside" effect.

The obvious weaknesses of the card are:

• a painfully low cost of 2
• expensive investment cost of 6
• several turns of being vulnerable before making a profit
• a one-time trigger before trashing
• it's an asset, so it requires its own server

It's looking bad. Let's try to make up for some of those drawbacks in the hypothetical situation that you actually wanted to include this in your deck.

1. You can run this in an asset-friendly ID like Gagarin, IG, or CtM that can help to protect it. Similarly it is boosted by Encryption Protocol and Oaktown Grid, both of which are underrated IMO. Obviously, you also put ICE in front of it, making it even more expensive to trash.
2. You can put this side-by-side with Bankers, meaning that it is "free" to invest in. If the runner doesn't trash CBG immediately, of course. Which they should if they want to, I don't know, try to win. You could also offload Adonis creds onto this directly for the same "free" investment.
3. It would be interesting to give the runner other must-run options at the same time as this. "You can trash my CIF, or you can run my IAA'd agenda, or you can run this Sensie I just rezzed. It might be hard to run and trash all of those in one of the IDs mentioned.

Ultimately, CIF is doing what you don't want to do as corp: take forever. Yes, you could put this in your scoring server like you do an Adonis Campaign, wait 6 turns to make decent profit, then take your money and IAA an agenda. But that's 6 turns the runner had to set up and work towards their end-game.

So yeah, it's probably better than Algo, but only marginally. ;-)

I like it on paper. In practice, it's tricky to use.

Archer Food

The slice of the color pie includes having benefits for small agendas. It has since the beginning: see Archer. Archer gets significantly worse if you're pitching 2- or 3-pt agendas. We see that mechanic again in cards like Corporate Town, and fuel for agenda-forfeiting in things like Public Support.

Size Matters

The inherent drawbacks of having lots of small agendas are:

1. Your agenda density goes way up, so the runner is more likely to steal agendas from central servers
2. Your advancement-cost-to-point ratio goes way up

There are probably not a lot of great ways to offset #1. The Board was designed to help with that, but trashing it gives the runner an extra 2 pts and can pretty much lose the game for you.

As for #2, I'm saying it costs more money to score out with a lot of 3-for-1's than a few 5-for-3's.

Let's say your HB deck has a total of 9 agendas: seven 2pt and two 3pt agendas. To score, say, 2 ABTs and 1 GFI, you will spend 11 advancing those agendas.

In a PE deck, you might have 14 agendas: eight 1-pt agendas and six 2-pt, for example. If you were to score out (you should try, if only to pressure the runner), it might look like 3x House of Knives, 1x Chronos Project, 1x Clone Retirement, and 1x Philotic Entanglement. That's 17 (Yes, there could be other agendas like Fetals and Medicals involved, but I think this example still illustrates my point).

It's also why rush decks love Hostile Takeover - that net 5 gain helps to offset the additional advancement cost.

That's where Stock Buy-Back comes into play - it helps to offset that drawback of having lots of small agendas when constructing your deck. 2 stolen agendas (i.e. 2-4 points) nets 5, which is not bad. 3 stolen agendas (i.e. 3-6 points) nets 8 for a , which is awesome.

Easier Said than Done

In practice, SBB is hard to use because the runner needs to have stolen some points to be worthwhile. You don't want to see it in your opening hand. What if you see 2 of them early? Do you just leave out some agendas for them to steal so your Stocks rise? It feels like a Diversified Portfolio or Peak Efficiency in that it's worse than Hedge Fund early and better than it later. So I think SBB is actually pretty specialized.

Try Me

I would try this in an Argus rush deck with at least ~14 agendas and 3 Snare!s. Don't ice up R&D early while you focus on scoring out some points, and the 2-3 agendas they steal in the meantime will actually boost your net worth. Then you sell your stocks and use that money to Midseasons them before blowing their shit up.